


Lack of Air

by EvelynThursday



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Drowning, Gen, Triggers, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2018-12-15 12:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11806005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvelynThursday/pseuds/EvelynThursday
Summary: “Do you know just how close to dying you were just now, Doctor? When I got you out of the water I couldn’t find either of your hearts beating and you certainly weren't breathing! They don’t seem to want your help and they certainly don’t deserve it. You are going to the Tardis right now.”The Doctor gets in a little incident whilst on a planet. Thank goodness Bill is there!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> TW: drowning, resuscitation  
> This is what happens when the new identity of one of my favourite characters is released when I’m in the middle of a whump binge.  
> As we don’t know who the next companion is going to be (I don’t think Bill is coming back *sadface* but I can hope) I have used Bill. Just pretend the whole turned-into-a-cyberman thing didn’t happen, or she was made human again. I’m imagining 13 as a mix of a happier post-Rose 10 and a calmer 11. I hope I have made this a ‘strong woman getting whumped’ fic and not a ‘damsel in distress’ fic. *crosses fingers*  
> Also - medical accuracy? What is medical accuracy? I did take a first aid course about 10 years ago now for my DofE so my knowledge of cpr is rather rusty and possibly now inaccurate. We also didn’t learn about drowning specifically, not that I remember anyway. And certainly not Time Lord first aid. I tried to research Time Lord anatomy/physiology but all the info I turned up was rather vague, so I might have made some of it up.  
> Most of this was written about a fortnight after the announcement of who the new Doctor was so I fully expect to be wrong about things when the new series comes out. But I hope they keep her outfit, or a variation of it, I love it! Depending on how wrong my characterisation is this may be rewritten when/after the new series comes out.

Bill stood horrified at the bank of the lake as the Doctor’s weak thrashing stilled under the heavy hands of the large lizard creature. She looked around desperately, trying to find something,  _ something _ , that could help. The alien was far bigger than she was and if it had managed to overpower the Doctor she had no hope against it.

A pile by the waterside a little way away caught her attention, a strange lump in the otherwise flat landscape, so she stumbled to it, legs shaking and breathing unsteady from the run she had taken to get here. Despite her haste she might still be too late.

The pile revealed itself to be a pile of belongings - clothes, strange electronic devices, the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver (which Bill quickly pocketed), a skin bag containing what looked like berries, all probably put there by the lizard still in the lake - and most importantly a gun.

Bill picked it up, the device unfamiliar in her hands, found what she hoped was the trigger and aimed.

The gun juddered in her hands as a bright beam of light shot from it, hitting the creature in the lake in the chest. It turned to her, seemingly not realising she had been there, before falling backwards with a splash and going still. Bill dropped the gun from lifeless fingers as she watched the Doctor’s figure intently for any movement. 

There was none.

With the creature dead Bill lept into the lake towards the Doctor. The water started at her ankles but quickly rose as she waded in. With each step she could feel heart rise up her throat in fear. The Doctor was floating face down and not moving, blond hair splayed out like a golden crown. 

The water had reached her armpits by the time Bill had got to the Doctor. 

She reached and grabbed the Doctor’s coat collar, flipping her onto her back in the water. The Doctor lay there with her eyes shut, completely limp as Bill grabbed her under the arms and dragged her back to shore, careful to keep her face above the water.

Bill was panting with exertion by the time she was back on dry land but was still careful to lower the Doctor without letting her head hit the ground. She wanted to collapse with exhaustion after her run and impromptu swim but she knew that she couldn’t stop. The Doctor needed her.

Bill looked at her friend properly for the first time. The Doctor was pale, eyes shut and lips bloodless. Her hair stuck to her face and she didn’t seem to be breathing.

“Shit,” muttered Bill as she tapped the Doctor’s face. “Doctor?” There was no response as her head rolled limply to the side. “Doctor, no!” 

Bill took a breath and recalled the course she had taken. “Focus, Bill. Focus.”

She had never been more thankful for being elected to take the first aid course when she first started working in the university dinner hall than she was now. At the time she didn’t particularly want to do it but didn’t mind having her name put forward when the other staff refused to take part in the course. There needed to be one first aider and why not foist off the job on the newbie?

Bill placed a hand in front of the Doctor’s face and waited, counting the seconds in her head. As feared there was no rush of air past her palm.

“Shit,” muttered Bill again, straightening the Doctor’s head and tilting it back. She took a deep breath and, pinching the other's nose, breathed into the Doctor’s mouth. With the second breath she remembered that she was supposed to watch the patient’s chest rising, though she couldn’t remember why. She thought it rose but it was hard to tell under the thick wollen coat.

Heartbeat was next on her mental list so she pressed two shaking fingers to the side of the Doctor’s throat. 

Nothing.

She moved her fingers a bit.

“Come on Doctor.”

Still nothing.

She pulled apart the sodden coat and laid her head on the Time Lady’s still chest, listening for a heartbeat through wet cloth. This wasn’t part of her course but tried it in one last hope that she had missed a faint beat with her cold fingers.

Nothing.

Sitting back up again she laced her hands together, palms stacked on top of each other and facing down. Bill had hoped that she would never have to do this in her life but it would seem that the universe had different plans.

She went to put her hands over the Doctor’s sternum but then remembered a crucial fact.

“Shit. Two hearts.”

She moved her hands to one side, over where she thought one heart might be, and hoped that this would be effective - first aid for Time Lords wasn’t something she learned on her course and not something she had asked the Doctor about. If they both got out of this that would certainly change. 

She took a breath, locked her elbows and pushed down on the Time Lady’s chest. She counted the required number of compressions on one side then swapped to the other, giving her a few breaths before starting again. She tried not to think about the ribs she could feel move under her hand.

Bill’s world was focused on counting compressions and breaths for longer than she cared to remember. She didn’t want to stop and admit defeat that the Doctor was really dead. Surely she would have regenerated by now if she was going to.

Suddenly the Doctor sucked in a small breath and started weakly coughing. Bill yelped in joyous surprise and grabbed her shoulder, rolling the Time Lady so she was on her side. There was more coughing than breathing but Bill was just happy that there was life back in the Doctor. Seeing her laying there still and not breathing would be seared onto her memory for the rest of her life. Bill rubbed the Doctor’s back as her coughing subsided after a few moments and was left panting, still limp with her eyes shut. 

“Doctor?” Asked Bill. “Doctor, wake up.” 

“-ill,” the Doctor faintly slurred between her weak breaths. “Bill?” The Doctor’s hand moved, searching for the voice and nudged Bill’s leg. Bill grabbed it with one hand and continued rubbing the Doctor’s back with the other.

“Yeah, it’s me Doctor. You’ll get your breath back in a minute.”

The Doctor’s eyes cracked open and Bill smiled at seeing those brown orbs; for a long, horrible moment she didn’t think that she would see them ever again.

“Where…?” The Doctor asked. “How?”

“You’re safe for the moment. But I don’t think we should hang around for too much longer, you never know when more of those things might appear and finish the job that that guy,” Bill pointed to the figure still floating in the lake, “started, and I don’t think you would like that any more than I did.”

“Ngh,” groaned the Doctor as she tried to get an elbow under herself. “Help me up.”

“Woah, Doctor. Don’t you think stay down for a bit, you’ve only just started breathing again.” The Doctor was not to be put off trying to stand, not even being too weak to even sit up. Bill swore under her breath about stubborn Time Lords but leant her muscle to get her upright.

With a bit of manhandling Bill got the Doctor on her unsteady feet, the Time Lady’s arm across her shoulders as she leant heavily on her companion. She looked a right state: blond hair plastered to her scalp, grass stuck to one half of her face where it had pressed onto the ground and a bruise starting to purple across the other cheekbone, free hand clutching at her probably sore chest. Bill could hear her breathless gasps as the Doctor’s head sunk onto her shoulder; she was really not fit to be moved at the moment.

The head jerked up again after a few moments, turning back towards the scene of her near death.

“He’s dead, Doctor. As a door nail,” said Bill. “And if I were you I’d want to get out of here. We both could use a set of dry clothes.”

The Doctor didn’t reply as she kept staring at the floating body. Bill jostled her a little, drawing her attention away from the lake. Bill smiled fondly at her, gently brushing the grass off and hair out of her face.

“Come on, Doctor. Let’s get you back to the Tardis.”

It was slow going; the Doctor’s feet stumbled ever few steps, knees threatening to buckle, nothing like her usual graceful movement. Bill was just glad that between them and the Tardis was rolling grassland- had there been trees and roots to contend with progress would have been nigh on impossible. 

Whilst the lake was still in sight the Doctor kept looking backwards, seemingly checking that her near-murderer was still lying dead in the water and not pursuing them. Bill noticed with relief that once the lake disappeared out of sight behind a hill she stopped looking back and the Doctor’s breathing also steadied a little the more distance they covered.

Bill tried to give the village they had visited a wide berth without adding too much distance to their journey but the Doctor still noticed the smoke wisping out from behind a few hills. Thankfully that was the only sign of nearby habitation; if any of the aliens came across them they had no way to fight them off: the Doctor was in no shape to fight and Bill had left the gun where it had fallen by the lakeside, not that she could have used it if she had it - both arms were being used to keep the Doctor on her feet.

The Doctor’s head rose from where it had been nodding, looking towards the smoke, squinting her eyes against the sunlight. She waved her free hand vaguely in the direction of the village.

“...help.”

“You tried to help them but they tried to kill you. I think we should get away from here as soon as possible.”

“Still help.”

“Do you know just how close to dying you were just now, Doctor?” Bill was starting to get annoyed at the Doctor’s selfless attitude, worry wearing her patience thin. “When I got you out of the water I couldn’t find either of your hearts beating and you certainly weren't breathing! They don’t seem to want your help and they certainly don’t deserve it. You are going to the Tardis right now.”

The Doctor took one last forlorn look in the direction for the village before turning back towards the direction of the Tardis.

“You’re not hurt?” 

“No, Doctor,” replied Bill. “You are the one they apparently didn’t like. They pissed me off when they didn’t tell me where you were but that’s all they did to me. If you discount the shock of finding you being drowned, that is.”

“I’m ok, Bill,” Bill didn’t look impressed as she was still bearing most of the Doctor’s weight and could hear her strained breathing. “A few hours in the Tardis medbay and I’ll be as fit as a fiddle.”

Bill was relieved when the Tardis finally came into sight. The Doctor seemed exhausted and her breathing hadn’t improved. In fact it sounded like it was getting worse, breaths more like gasps and the arm not over her companion’s shoulders was held across her chest as if it hurt to breath.

“A few minutes more, Doctor. Then we both can get warm and dry.”

Once they reached the familiar blue door Bill propped the Doctor against the corner as she raided the Time Lady’s pockets to find the key. The Doctor ignored her and gave the wood at her shoulder a pat.

“Hello, Old Girl,” she murmured.

“A-ha!” Exclaimed Bill as her search of the Doctor’s pockets revealed the silver key.

A few seconds later the Tardis door was open and Bill was helping the Doctor reach the chairs by the console. After sitting her down and going to shut the front door that had been left open Bill was horrified to turn and find the Doctor on her feet, stumbling around the center column, flicking switches and pulling levers.

“Doctor!” Bill rushed back to the center of the room but stopped before she got in the way of Time Lady. “Don’t you think you should wait until you have recovered a bit before flying the Tardis?”

“No,”  said the Doctor, not looking up from where she was using the controls. “Vortex ‘s the best place.”

With a last circuit of the console the Doctor took hold of the largest leaver and slammed it down. Instantly the familiar noises of the dematerialisation sequence started up.

The Doctor stared up at the time rotor with a tired but manic grin as it started to rise and fall with a groan before a breath caught in her throat and she hunched over in pain. She dropped to her knees, one hand clutching at her chest and the other on the console to keep her upright, wheezing loudly as the last of her strength left her.

Bill knelt at her side and caught her as she lost her grip on the console edge and started to collapse towards the floor. 

“Doctor!”

The Doctor didn’t reply, just leant heavily into Bill, panting and coughing.

Bill cradled the blond head with one hand and shifted it so that is was resting more comfortably on her shoulder.

“It’s ok,” said Bill, rubbing a hand up and down the Doctor’s back. “Get your breath back, then we’ll get you sorted out. 

A few minutes later the Doctor hadn’t stirred. The Time Lady was still coughing now and again but it no longer sounded like each breath was a great struggle, though it still wasn’t normal. 

“Doctor?” Bill asked. “You still conscious? What do you want me to do?”

“Medbay,” the Doctor sighed, making no move to get up.

“Come on then Doctor, up you get.” Said Bill, lifting one of the Doctor’s arms across her shoulder again. “I didn’t drag your ass out of a lake for you to die in the Tardis. I’ve only just gotten used to this new face!” A bit of unladylike grunting later and both were on their feet again.

The Doctor screwed up her eyes in pain and clasped her forehead with her free hand.

“Ow. Headache.”

“Did you hit your head?”

“I’ll be ok, it’s only a little oxygen deprivation to the brain.”

“Doctor! That’s really not good. Where else are you hurt?”

“It hurts to breath and I’m not talking about the bruises I can feel on both sides of my ribs. I can hazard a guess how they got there. I don’t suppose you know a Martha Jones by any chance? She’s a doctor, and a darn good one at that. Other than that I’m fine, if rather wet. As are you. Why don’t you go and dry off, I’ll be fine here.”

“No way, Doctor. I want to make sure you get to the medbay to find something to help your breathing and not have you sneaking off to go expire in a corner of the Tardis. Come on, the faster we get to the medbay the faster we both can get dry again.”

Progress was quicker this time, though they had a minor detour to the wardrobe to get the Doctor a dry change of clothes; Bill was going to change once she’d looked after the Doctor.

Once in the medbay Bill sat the Doctor on the nearest bed before putting her pile of the Doctor’s clean clothes beside her and then turned to start to search in the medical supplies.

Bill made an aborted move towards the shelves filled with boxes and bottles of medicine (or what she assumed was medicine) and ended up standing in the middle of the room, looking around in confusion.

“You’re gonna have to help me here, Doctor. I don’t know what you need.”

The Doctor sat hunched over on the edge of the bed, arm still across her chest.

“Oxygen.” She pointed at some equipment under the bed she was sitting on. “Pass me the mask up here and then turn the blue valve.” Bill did as she was told then sat at the other end of the bed, watching as the Doctor covered her face with the mask and take a few tentative breaths.

A few minutes of oxygen seemed to work wonders- the arm across the Doctor’s chest dropped, her hunched shoulders sunk and she was sitting up straighter. Her cheeks were also starting to loose that sickly pale colour. 

Whilst she had been helping the Doctor Bill hadn’t realised just how cold she was feeling in her wet clothes. The weather outside the Tardis had been sunny but not particularly warm so neither of them had dried off much and the temperature inside the Tardis was at it’s usual cool. She tried to suppress the first shiver that ran up her spine but it was not long before the Doctor noticed her companion shivering. She removed the oxygen mask so she could talk freely.

“Bill, go get changed and warmed up.”

“No, Doctor. You are still soaking. You’re hurt so you come first. Time Lord anatomy or not, wet clothes can’t be good for you. The alien version of pneumonia can’t be any better than the human one.”

The Doctor relented, placing the mask aside and letting Bill help peel off her sodden coat, boots, socks and then her jumper.

With the thick coat and hoodie taken off Bill could see the bruises around the Doctor’s throat and neck where the alien had forcefully held her head under the water. They even snaked over her collar bones and disappeared under the collar of her shirt. Bill shivered at the sight of them, after her experience spacewalking outside  _ that _ space station without a helmet she hated the thought of any type of oxygen deprivation.

Bill was interrupted from her memories by the Doctor’s sudden coughing fit. Whilst they had lightened in frequency and severity whilst on the oxygen, without it they came back in full force. She grabbed the mask off the bed and pressed into the Doctor’s hand.

“I’m ok, Bill,” said the Doctor, not making a move to raise the oxygen mask to her face. “I‘m not so hurt that I can’t get changed. You go dry off and change yourself before you get ill. You’ve helped me enough already.”

“But…”

“Bill. Go.”

Bill reluctantly went but was gratified when she looked over her shoulder to see the Doctor with the mask over her face again, breathing in the needed oxygen.

* * *

Bill returned to the medbay, feeling far better now she was warm and in dry clothes. She found the Doctor in her dry clothes sitting cross legged on the bed, one hand holding the oxygen mask resting on a knee whilst tapping at a computer screen attached to the wall with an arm with the other. The screen was covered in the usual swirls and loops of Gallifreyan. The Doctor seemed to be so engrossed in the unintelligible writing that she didn’t seem to notice Bill’s entrance. 

Bill sighed and lifted the hand holding the mask so that it was pressed against the Time Lady’s face.

“The oxygen is helping you breath, Doctor, so keep using it. Wotcha looking at anyway?”

The Doctor lifted the mask far enough from her face so she could talk.

“My vitals. From the Tardis medscan. My lungs aren’t so good but everything else is ok. Just bruises.”

She tapped a few buttons on the screen and the circles disappeared, replaced with english that Bill could easily read. She pushed the screen towards Bill and took a deep breath of the oxygen, triggering a cough. 

The screen confirmed what the Doctor said (for once it seemed that she was telling the truth about her health; no matter what face she wore, hiding any problems with her health seemed to be a common personality trait) so Bill pushed it away back towards the wall, out of the way.

“So what do we do now?” She asked.

“There is some medicine that’ll help heal my lungs but it’ll knock me out for a few hours. My Time Lord physiology could heal on its own but this way is quicker and less painful.”

“How long?”

“4 or 5 hours. Six if the damage is really bad. Without the medicine it would take me a day or two to be fully fit. I’ve done it before but I’d rather skip the long recovery this time, it feels like I’m breathing through treacle.”

“That’s so not fun.”

The Doctor hummed in agreement and went back to concentrating on her breathing.

In the lull in conversation Bill noticed the Doctor’s hair sticking up from where she apparently had toweled the worst of the wet out of it. She snorted in amusement and reached out to flatten the strands.

It was then when she realised exactly what clothes the Doctor had picked up from the wardrobe room on the way past. Trousers, shirt and even the neon green fluffy socks were normal but one piece of clothing wasn’t.

The black hoodie, whilst tailored for thin person, was obviously made for a tall man so it swamped her slight frame, but she had shoved the long sleeves up past her elbows, out of the way. Bill thought she had seen it before. The Doctor noticed her curious gaze.

“It belonged to the previous me. It’s… familiar.”

“You don’t have to tell me about comfort clothes. I’ve got a jumper of Mum’s, I used to wear it all the time when I was a kid. I still wear it sometimes on bad days, just to feel that little bit closer to her.” Bill took a breath. “Do you ever miss the people you were? I know you are the same person, but each time you are a little different than the last. Sometimes I can’t believe that you used to be grumpy and Scottish!” The Doctor sighed.

“Sometimes I miss them. Regeneration is essentially the death of that personality. I still have the memories but they almost feel like they belonged to other people. Speaking of clothes I do wonder why I decided to wear some of my past outfits. I had quite the love for bright colours when I was younger. And those frills, what was I thinking?!” She grinned at the memories and suppressed a cough behind a laugh. “Remind me someday to tell you about a scarf I was rather fond of in one incarnation. I don’t know how I ever ran anywhere without tripping over it.”

Bill snorted, trying to imagine the most outlandish clothes ever. But she didn’t think the Time Lady had grown completely out of the love of bright colours - the neon green socks on her feet were a little bright on the eyes.

There was another lull where Bill’s thoughts turned to more serious matters.

“So what happened back on the planet? What did you do to those lizard people to make them try and drown you?”

“I didn’t  _ do _ anything! One moment I’m being taken to see a lake that is apparently so crystal clear you can see the ruins of a city in it’s depths and the next I’ve got a fist to the face. Perhaps they didn’t like the colour of my hair. Things get a bit hazy after that until I find myself underwater.”

“What about that Time Lord breathing thing you told me you had used at Chasm Forge? When you gave me your spacesuit helmet.”

“My respiratory bypass. It needs conscious control and I wasn’t quite conscious when I needed to be. Whilst I did get it working in the end I think I inhaled a lot of water in the process. And the air I managed to keep didn’t last very long. 

She paused to think. “How long do you think it was before you got me out of the water?”

“You were still fighting that alien when I first saw you but you stopped fairly quickly after that, that must have been when you passed out. From then until I got you out must have only been a few minutes. I’m not quite sure, I was in such a panic I wasn’t paying attention to the time.”

“My bypass would have still worked after I fell unconscious so it would have kept me alive a few minutes longer than without it.” 

“But I couldn’t find your hearts beating when I got you out.”

“That’s a defence mechanism - slowing my metabolism down to try and survive. It wasn’t until you got me out of the lake and got oxygen into me that my body got the kick it needed to restart. Thanks for that, by the way, regeneration wouldn’t have been far off.”

“I’m just glad you’re ok. Stay away from any lakes in the future, I don’t want a repeat of what happened.” 

The Doctor huffed out an amused breath.

“Neither do I.”

There was another pause as they both remembered the horrific events that they had gone through only a few hours before.

After a moment the Doctor reached out and took the computer screen, bringing it back towards her. She started tapping, changing the screen from the medscan to a read out of the Tardis sensors. She examined it for a few minutes, tapping away at the screen with both hands. The oxygen mask was abandoned by her side.

“The Tardis is currently safely floating in the time vortex and there are no readings that indicate any kind of trouble. So now’s probably the time to get my lungs sorted out. If anything happens whilst I’m unconscious the Tardis will keep you safe. And she could probably wake me up if she needed to.” She flicked the screen back to her vital readings and moved it out of the way, but made sure that it was angled so that Bill could see it.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Where’s this medicine that’s supposed to help then?”

“Go go the second set of shelving and look in the right hand cupboard. You are looking for a canister with a yellow stripe around it.” Bill moved as instructed and reached towards a likely looking vial. “Down a self. Left, no your other left. Bit more. That one.”

Bill came back with a shiny metal canister, about the size of a standard can of fizzy drink. The label, bisected by the bright yellow stripe around its center, was unreadable; it looked like the writing was english but the words were long and meant nothing. She guessed they were the names of the drugs in the canister.

The Doctor took it out of her hands and after examining the writing and seemingly satisfied at what she read, handed it back.

“That’s going to go in the oxygen system. It’ll knock me out fairly quickly once it’s in so if there is anything you need to do or ask beforehand, now is the time.”

Bill took a second to think then shook her head.

“I can’t think of anything. Lets just get you well again. Just tell me what I need to do.”

“There should be a red lever you can pull back to reveal a chamber. It should be near the blue valve you turned earlier. Put the canister in and then push the lever back into position. There should be a click as it engages. Then it’s night night for me.” She took a knowing look at her companion. “Bill, make sure you get some rest. Don’t spend all night here, no benefit can be gained watching me sleep. Check I haven’t knocked the oxygen mask off as I pass out then leave me. Watching a sleeping Time Lord can’t be the most thrilling of entertainment, go do whatever you humans do for fun for a while. After today I think you deserve it.”

She finished her small speech with a long coughing fit that left her breathless and hunched forwards. Bill propped her up and handed her the forgotten oxygen mask.

The Doctor got her breathing back under control after a few minutes then turned on the bed, swinging her feet up and adjusting the straps on the mask. Bill took that as her cue to insert the canister.

She crouched down by the bed and quickly found the blue valve and the red lever next to it. 

The Doctor leaned over the side of the bed to check what her companion was doing, but sat back up again when she was satisfied her instructions were being followed correctly.

The lever revealed a chamber, which the canister fitted into easily. She paused with her hand on the lever.

“Doctor?”

“Go for it.” Bill pushed the lever home and it slid there with a reassuring clunk.

There was a click and a quiet hiss from the machine as the Doctor settled the oxygen mask comfortably on her face, straps flicking out the end of a few strands of hair, which she pushed out of the way. Bill stood up, waiting and watching the Doctor for any sign that the medication was working.

“It’ll take a few seconds,” the Time Lady said, slightly muffled.

Bill could tell the moment when the drugs hit. The Doctor sagged where she was sitting and started to list to the side. She giggled a little as Bill caught her by the shoulders.

“I think I should lie down,” she slurred behind the mask.

Bill carefully lowered her down as she was quickly going boneless, eyes sliding shut by the time her head had hit the pillow. The hand she was still clutching the oxygen mask with relaxed and fell to land on her collarbone. Bill carefully moved it so that it was resting by her side, the arm completely limp. She gave the Doctor’s shoulder a gentle shake. 

Nothing. Spark out. The other hand, resting on her stomach, rose and fell with each breath she took. 

The medscan screen, displaying the Doctor’s vitals - thankfully still in english - showed that she had slipped into a deep sleep, hearts beating calmly and breathing steady and slow.

There was nothing Bill could do now, just to trust that by morning the Doctor would be back to her usual healthy self. She took the opportunity to sit on the other bed in the room and let out a deep, sighing breath, muscles finally relaxing after being so anxiously tense for so long. She watched the Doctor sleep, calm and still and tried to commit the scene to memory. She knew that by morning the Doctor would be bounding around with her restless energy again, with probably no effect of the previous day’s trauma so this moment of peace was a relief.

Her stomach gurgled violently, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten for hours. With all the events that had happened food had never occurred to her, not even when she went to change out of her wet clothes. Thinking about it she probably should have made the Doctor eat something before administering the medication. Nothing to do about that now, except make sure that there was food ready when she woke up. Anyway, Time Lords don’t need as much food as humans, as she had been frequently reminded by both regenerations she had known. But she was only human, so she needed food, and now. Time to raid the Tardis kitchen and leave the Doctor to sleep and recover in peace.

* * *

Bill leaned in the doorway of the medbay a few hours later, watching the Doctor sleep. She had meant to go to bed but she just wanted to check on her friend for one last time before she felt she could go to sleep and put the horrible day behind her. 

The Doctor was still the same as when she had left- breathing steadily behind the oxygen mask, computer screen showing the same reassuring readout that said that the Doctor was stable and in a deep, healing sleep. Bill went to her side and stroked her now dry blond hair. 

“That really was a close one today, Doctor,” she sighed. “I really thought I had lost you. I wouldn’t mind us going to somewhere less dangerous next time. Just this once.”

Before she could second guess herself Bill dropped a kiss onto the Doctor’s forehead before taking one last look at the computer screen and turning to leave. She stopped at the doorway and turned back to look at the sleeping Time Lady one more time before she headed to bed.

“Rest well, Doctor,” she whispered.

 

End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might have sequel/second chapter, I have a paragraph or two already written. It would be the Doctor’s POV of the events in this chapter and also events before and after it. If anyone is interested in more Thirteen whump. But it won’t be immediately written - I’ve got to (figure out how to) write a covering letter and update my CV for a job application first. Eek!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only two weeks until we see the 13th Doctor in action for the first time! So excited! I had wanted to get this story finished before the first air date so I've got a lot to do before I can post the next and final chapter. Especially as I keep being distracted by urgent IRL things and other 13th Doctor one shots that I hope to finish before her first episode.
> 
> Small reference to ‘The Day of the Doctor’ but I don’t think it counts as a spoiler (but let me know if it is).

The Doctor bounced on her toes as she walked across the grassy landscape, a tall bipedal lizard from the nearby village walking just ahead as her guide. She had been told that nearby there was a lake with crystal clear waters, so deep and clear that you could see a ruined city in its depths. The ever curious Time Lady that she was, she had asked to be taken there. Her guide, a member of the group of aliens from the village who had told her about the nearby wonder, offered his services. 

She had left Bill in the village, happily looking through stalls of fabric and nicknacks. The Doctor hadn't seen her before she had left but the rest of the group assured her that she would be informed of her impromptu field trip.

The pair crested over a hill and snaking out from behind another the Doctor spotted the silvery edge of a lake. With the sun glistening off the water it looked quite beautiful.

“We’re nearly there, Doctor,” growled her guide.

She couldn’t wait to get closer and see this promised city.

But as they got closer the Doctor started to feel uneasy, anxiety coiling around her stomach. As they descended the hill the reflections of the sun moved off the glass-like lake and whilst the water was undeniably very clear the Doctor could see that the lake was shallow. No city in sight. And what was that white she could see peeking through the silt at the bottom?

The Time Lady turned to her lizard companion in confusion.

“Is this the lake with the city you told me about? I can’t see any buildings in it and I can’t see any other lakes around.”

Whilst this regeneration’s reflexes were faster than her previous few they still weren't fast enough to dodge the sudden flying fist. It hit her on the cheekbone, the force behind the punch reverberating around her skull. 

Then, nothing.

Darkness.

Weightlessness.

Wet.

Cold.

It was the sudden shock of cold on her face that brought her back round, gasping in shock then coughing out the water that had just invaded her lungs. 

She opened her eyes to see the clear shallows of water, scattered white bones gleaming in the blue-green-tinted sunlight. The silt on the bottom was stirred up around two webbed lizard feet. 

She held what little breath she had as she realised where she was: held underwater by her lizard guide, a heavy weight pressing down around her neck and across her shoulders.

Her lungs started to tingle and burn.

She tried to struggle out of the the alien’s grip whilst trying to desperately activate her respiratory bypass. Her arms were free so she tried to reach towards the lizard, hands searching for anything to grasp, but the lizard was too big and it was too far away to touch. Her struggles only made the creature grasp her harder, it’s thick finger-like digets digging into her flesh.

The urge to take a breath suddenly lessened as she felt her bypass start to work but her lungs still burned.

She searched her pockets as she thrashed around, trying to dislodge the alien’s grasping hands by any means, for anything that could help but found nothing. Where was the sonic screwdriver?

She could feel her struggles getting weaker and weaker as she fought to stay conscious, bypass eking every last atom of oxygen out of what air remained in her lungs. Through her increasingly hazy vision she spotted a bone sticking out of the mud below her. She reached out a hand. If only she could reach…

Nothing.

Nothing.

Then pain. Lungs screaming as they voided themselves of water. Coughing and spluttering and gasping for air. She sensed that she was lying on her side, grass pressed against one cheek. She could feel a hand on her shoulder and another rubbing large circles across her back. She lay there limply as her body fought for oxygen.

"Doctor?" She heard. "Doctor, wake up."

That voice. She knew that voice.

"-ill?" She forced her mouth to work properly between her desperate pants, reaching out towards the voice. "Bill."

The hand on her shoulder moved and clasped her searching hand, the other continuing to rub her back.

“Yeah, it’s me Doctor. You’ll get your breath back in a minute.”

More of her senses slowly started to come online again, brain distantly acknowledging the rotation of the planet and the passing of time and nose filling with the scent of grass. She could feel the burning in her throat and lungs settle a little and she became aware of painful bruises on her cheek and chest. But why couldn't she see anything?

Eyes. That was why is was dark. She needed to open her eyes.

The sunlight was bright when she managed to fight her eyes open, but she was rewarded by the sight of her companion grinning at her, through she could see tear tracks running down her face.

“Where…?” She tried to remember what had happened to her. “How?”

“You’re safe for the moment," said Bill. "But I don’t think we should hang around for too much longer, you never know when more of those things might appear and finish the job that that guy,” Bill pointed somewhere past her feet, from where she was she couldn't see exactly what had caught her attention, “started, and I don’t think you would like that any more than I did.”

Memory flashed before her eyes and she suddenly remembered what had happened. Cold water and a weight on the back of her neck. Lungs screaming for air.

Adrenaline rushed through her as she had the sudden overwhelming urge to get as far away from the lake as possible. She forced her sluggish and aching body to do her bidding but she could do little more than shift her weight onto one arm.

"Help me up," she pleaded to her companion.

Thankfully Bill could give her the strength that had deserted her to get her on her feet, despite her protests at the state of the Time Lady's health.

Getting to her feet was a painful experience - the blood rushed from her head, drowning out all sounds and making her now aching head feel like it was filled with lead. She was also finding it hard to breath; the sudden exertion almost too much for her already taxed systems.

After a few moments she lifted her head off Bill shoulder where she hadn't realised where it had fallen and took her first look at the lake where this regeneration had almost ended.

She thought she could hear Bill talking but she didn't pay any attention, too deeply embedded in memories. Why had that alien decided to kill her and why didn't she realise something was wrong until she was knocked out?

It wasn't until her companion nudged her shoulder with her own that the Doctor realised that she had been staring at the dead creature floating in the water. Bill smiled at her and reached out to brush off the grass that she hadn't realised was still stuck to her face.

“Come on, Doctor. Let’s get you back to the Tardis.”

Most of the journey was a painful blur; her feet were uncoordinated and each breath she took burned down her throat, creating an ache in her chest. She was ever thankful that Bill was there to take her weight; had she been without a companion she probably couldn’t have made the trip without several hours in a healing coma (she refused to acknowledge the fact that if she didn’t have a companion she would have regenerated in the lake and the journey would have been easy). At one point she caught a faint whiff of wood smoke and looked up to see the smoke coming from the fires of the nearby village hidden by the landscape.

She remembered some of the villagers that she had seen, thin and timid, avoiding her gaze and scurrying away when she tried to approach. She had to help. But Bill wasn't happy when she tried to voice her desire, reminding her of the villagers ill feelings against her.

She resigned herself to not being able to help then remembered that she wasn't the only one that could have gotten hurt. If they had harmed her companion then those villagers wouldn't know what had hit them.

“No, Doctor, you are the one they apparently didn’t like.”

She calmed her suddenly rising temper, satisfied that Bill was telling the truth and the villagers really hadn’t hurt her. But she was reminded that she didn’t know why she had been attacked and tried to be killed. Why specifically her and not her companion, who was also on her own on a strange planet? Oh well, she can find out later, once she’s had a nice long sleep in the Tardis medbay. 

Bill was still looking at her, concerned, so she hurried to reassure her despite feeling exhausted and in pain. Why did it hurt so much just to breath?

‘Keep going, Doctor,’ she thought to herself. ‘The Tardis isn’t very far away. Just keep placing one foot in front of the other. Can’t let Bill see just how bad off you are.’

The relief at seeing the Tardis nearly caused that Doctor’s knees to buckle, she was nearly home and safe. Bill seemed to be equally relieved.

“A few minutes more, Doctor. Then we both can get warm and dry.”

She let Bill search her pockets for the key as she lent against the outside of the Tardis, too tired to look for it herself. She assumed it was still in there, but it could have disappeared like the sonic screwdriver, presumably taken by her lizard guide whilst she was unconscious. Oh well, making a new one was another thing to do once she had recovered.

The Tardis hummed in greeting in her head so she patted her wooden shell in return. 

“Hello, Old Girl.”

Key found and door opened she was ushered through and sat on one of the chairs around the center of the room.

As Bill went to shut the door the Doctor gathered her remaining energy and stood, leaning on the console heavily as she started to activate the controls in preparation of flight. If she was going to be out for action for a while she was going to do that in the relative safety of the time vortex and not on the planet that had tried to kill her. Bill was understandably annoyed and concerned at her activity but she didn’t let that stop her from activating the dematerialisation sequence.

The grinding noises that were so familiar started up and she finally relaxed the tension that she had been holding. But with the the loss of tension went her strength. 

Her head suddenly spun and everything seemed to shift sideways, legs turning weak and vision blacking out. She was dimly away of being caught by Bill before she completely hit the ground. Breathing was agony. 

It could only have been moments later when she blinked herself awake, finding herself propped up against her companion, head resting on her shoulder.

“Doctor?” She heard Bill ask. “What do you want me to do?” 

“Medbay,” she sighs. It came out weaker than she would have liked, but with any hope that would stop Bill from moving her quite yet, her legs were still rather unsteady. But that was not to be.

“Come on then Doctor, up you get. I didn’t drag your ass out of a lake for you to die in the Tardis. I’ve only just gotten used to this new face!” 

She let Bill manhandle her onto her feet, too tired to protest, but she needed to get to the medbay anyway and wouldn’t be able to manage the trip anytime soon without help. 

She felt the blood rush from her head, ears roaring and skull aching as she stood. She shut her eyes against the pain and raised a hand to it, partly to try and sooth the pain away and partly to make sure that it was still attached. She hadn’t realised she had expressed her pain until Bill asked whether she had hit her head.

“It’s only a little oxygen deprivation to the brain.”

Bill was not happy with that answer to her question, demanding to know where else she was hurt. She tried to pass off her injuries as minor whilst being truthful, not wanting Bill to worry, preferring for her to meet her own needs before that of the Time Lady’s. She also wanted to be able to lick her physical and mental wounds in private. But her companion refused to leave and so started to direct her in the direction of the medbay. 

As they walked she remembered Martha. The last time she had felt the twin bruises over her hearts was after they had first met, stranded on the moon with a fleet of Judoon and running out of air. Bill had, like Martha before her, worked out that as she had two hearts she would need CPR a bit different from the human method. Thank goodness her Time Lord anatomy meant that she was only left with bruises, and not the broken ribs that humans often got. Painful.

Martha. Doctor Jones. It had been a while since she had last seen her companion, at least one regeneration ago, from a distance so he wouldn’t be seen. She hoped that she was living well with her husband – Mickey had grown up a lot since he had left Rose and her tenth self in the other universe. Eleventh if she counted War, though she had never really concluded whether she should include him in the count - she had spent so long denying his existence but after the events where incarnations War, Ten and Eleven met, her previous selves had agreed that he still was the Doctor.

When they passed the corridor leading to the wardrobe she stopped and nudged Bill in that direction.

“I don’t know about you,” she said when Bill didn’t move. “But I’d quite like to get some dry clothes; these are rather wet and uncomfortable. And cold.” 

Bill relented.

“Fine, Doctor. But we are sorting you out as soon as you have got some clothes.”

She helped her down the corridor, standing in the doorway as the Doctor started rummaging in the racks of clothes and draws. The Doctor emerged unsteadily, carrying a bundle of cloth. Bill took the pile off her with one hand and used the other to draw the Time Lady’s arm across her shoulder once more; she looked only a few seconds away from falling over.

“Aren’t you going to nip to your room and get some dry clothes?” Asked the Doctor when they passed the corridor that Bill’s room was usually on.

“I will when I’ve got you to the medbay,” she replied.

The white walls of the medbay were a welcome sight and the Doctor sank gratefully onto the nearest bed, resting her weary legs. She was amused when Bill, in her determined enthusiasm to help, ended up in the center of the room, looking round in confusion, not knowing what amongst the many shelves and cabinets of medicine would be useful.

She directed her companion towards the oxygen generating equipment and was relieved to find that after a few moments on the oxygen she found it was easier to breath and it was less painful. After a few minutes her ever present headache started to lessen too. 

She noticed Bill start to shiver where she had settled herself at the end of the bed out of the corner of her eye; she hadn’t been exaggerating earlier when she said that her wet clothes were making her cold and with a human’s higher body temperature Bill must be feeling the temperature more than her.

“Bill, go get changed and warmed up,” she said removing the oxygen mask off her face so she could talk clearly.

Bill was not to be dissuaded from her goal of helping the Doctor in anyway she could, seemingly risking her own health in the process; her comment about pneumonia went both ways. Silly, but loyal, human.

But she let her companion help her, hoping that a little compromise now would gain her a little favour later. She also thought that her socks were so soaked that she wouldn’t be able to get her boots off on her own. And a little help with her sodden, and to be frank slightly smelly - why had she chosen a woollen coat out of all the materials in available in time and space - coat would be nice.

Once shed of her outer layers she was caught by a large coughing fit, rattling her frame from deep in her chest. That lake water that she had inhaled really hadn’t done her lungs any good. 

Once the coughs had petered off she realised that Bill had put the oxygen mask into her hand.

“I’m ok, Bill,” she panted, getting the breath back that the cough had stolen. She could see that Bill was about to help her undress further but she forestalled her. 

She put her foot down on the matter (metaphorically, she wasn’t sure she had the breath, strength and balance to do it physically) and refused to let Bill help her any further without looking after herself first. She also didn’t want to reveal too much skin in front of her companion - past regenerations may have been fine with it, Eleven specifically, but this one was not - and she didn’t want to worry Bill any further. She had already been staring at the revealed bruises on her neck with concern.

She was relieved when Bill reluctantly went to her room to change, and started to take breaths from the oxygen mask as the human’s footsteps echoed fainter and fainter down the corridor. Once the ache in her chest had lessened once more she turned to her pile of clothes forgotten in the bed. She pulled out a large black hoodie and pressed it to her face, running her fingers through the fabric and remembering when she used to be tall, silver haired and had enormous eyebrows. That was a good regeneration and is sometimes missed. Sure, she liked this body but sometimes she remembered the past with longing. 

But sitting around remembering the past wasn’t going to warm her up in her wet clothes.

She shed the last remaining garments, wincing in disgust as the sodden fabrics stuck to her skin. Her breasts caught the corner of her eye as she reached for her dry set of clothes. She may had been in this body for a while but it was going to take longer than that to get used the change in physical appearance from the male bodies that she had had for the last few thousand years. Sometime the change still surprised her.

A few minutes longer and she was dressed once more, rubbing at her hair with a towel from a nearby cabinet with one hand and holding the oxygen mask to her face with the other. It was amazing what a difference changing garments made; dressed in the the hoodie of her previous regeneration made her sit a little more upright and feel a little more settled than she was before, still soaked to the skin and shaken by her near death experience. Sure, she had been near death before, and actually died many times and regenerated, but there was something horrific and traumatising about being powerless as you are held underwater by something stronger than you. She had to admit that it was her companion that had got her out of that one, not her usual wit and courage. And she had been rescued just short of regeneration; it may have just been the feeling of oxygen filling her veins once more but thinking back she thought she had felt the tingle of regeneration energy dissipating just under her skin as she woke up on the lakeside. 

She discarded the towel on the floor behind the bed with the pile of her wet clothes and drew the nearby computer screen towards her, tapping on the screen to bring up her medscan sensor readings. As she thought the worst of her external injuries were bruises and thankfully only her lungs had been affected by the prolonged lack of oxygen (or rather the presence of water), and they could be fixed by a medicated nap in the Tardis medbay. All in all she thought that she had been very lucky.

As she was looking at her readings she didn’t realise when the hand holding the mask drifted down to rest on her knee; the oxygen was helping her breathing immensely, though it was still painful. It was then that Bill reappeared, dressed in her dry clothes and a little annoyed that the Doctor wasn’t using the helpful oxygen.

“The oxygen is helping you breath, Doctor, so keep using it,” Bill said when she had placed the mask back over the Time Lady’s face. “Wotcha looking at anyway?”

The Doctor tapped at the screen again, changing the language from her native Gallifreyan to Bill’s native early 21st century English and pushing the screen towards her so she could read what was there. Bill pushed it back towards the wall once she had finished reading. 

“So what do we do now?” She asked.

The Doctor wanted to be rid of this painful breathing as fast as possible, though she wasn’t looking forward to being completely out of action for any length of time.

“There is some medicine that’ll help heal my lungs but it’ll knock me out for a few hours. My Time Lord physiology could heal on its own but this way is quicker and less painful.”

“How long?”

“4 or 5 hours. Six if the damage is really bad. Without the medicine it would take me a day or two to be fully fit. I’ve done it before but I’d rather skip the long recovery this time, it feels like I’m breathing through treacle.”

“That’s so not fun.” Understatement of the decade. In the quiet that followed the Doctor went back to breathing in the oxygen, calming the fire in her lungs.

She was confused a few moments later, when she heard Bill’s amused snort and felt her companion’s hand stroking down her hair. It took a second but she realised that it must have been standing up after her rough toweling of it earlier; she still wasn’t used to this length of hair and it’s wild behaviour. Men’s short hair was so much more manageable and she didn’t know how some women could keep their hair so much longer than hers. How did River manage to never have a curl out of place, no matter what adventure they were having?

She felt Bill’s gaze and looked to see what had caught her attention. She seemed to be staring at the hoodie she had on. Her previous regeneration’s hoodie. Remembering what she had taken from the wardrobe, and why, made her feel a little self conscious.

“It belonged to the previous me. It’s… familiar.”  Another understatement but it was hard to describe the feeling of nostalgia. Thankfully Bill knew exactly what she was trying to say.

“You don’t have to tell me about comfort clothes. I’ve got a jumper of Mum’s, I used to wear it all the time when I was a kid. I still wear it sometimes on bad days, just to feel that little bit closer to her.” 

There was a second pause as Bill seemed to prepare herself for asking a question, perhaps fearing the answer. “Do you ever miss the people you were?” She twists her fingers in nervousness as she tries to explain her question. “I know you are the same person, but each time you are a little different than the last. Sometimes I can’t believe that you used to be grumpy and Scottish!”

The Doctor was a little surprised at her question but could see the thought pattern behind it - the plain black hoodie had made the both of them think of the man she used to be.

“Sometimes I miss them,” she said, a little wistfully. “Regeneration is essentially the death of that personality. I still have the memories but they almost feel like they belonged to other people.” Determined to inject a little more humour into the now solemn conversation she let her mind and mouth turn to more happy memories. Most clothes-wearing species she had met went through periods of bad taste in clothing when they were younger, herself included! It was nice to see Bill smile again after the rather traumatic day they both had had and if that meant reminiscing about her rather colourful outfits then so be it.

She ignored the building ache in her chest, hiding coughs behind laughs, trying to keep the inevitable question from being asked. 

“So what happened back on the planet? What did you do to those lizard people to make them try and drown you?” And there it was. Bill’s lovely smile had disappeared again.

“I didn’t  _ do _ anything!” The Doctor threw up her hands in agitation, then gave Bill the short version of events. “Perhaps they didn’t like the colour of my hair. Things get a bit hazy after that until I find myself underwater.”

“What about that Time Lord breathing thing you told me you had used at Chasm Forge? When you gave me your spacesuit helmet.” ‘ _ Time Lord breathing thing _ ’? After a moment of indignation she remembered that he hadn’t really explained what had happened, concentrating more on diverting Bill’s attention from the fact that he had gone blind at the time and later when the treatment failed to restore his sight.

“My respiratory bypass,” she explained, not going into detail but hopefully explaining to her companion that it wasn’t the magic, life prolonging process that some companions thought it was; Time Lords may be harder to kill than humans but they are not indestructible. “Whilst I did get it working in the end I think I inhaled a lot of water in the process. And the air I managed to keep didn’t last very long.” The memory of that moment rose to the surface of her mind and she fought it down, not wanting to remember the feeling of panic and the burning of her lungs, desperate for air. “How long do you think it was before you got me out of the water?”

“You were still fighting that alien when I first saw you but you stopped fairly quickly after that, that must have been when you passed out. From then until I got you out must have only been a few minutes. I’m not quite sure, I was in such a panic I wasn’t paying attention to the time.”

From the look on Bill’s face as she spoke it looked like she was trying not to be overtaken by the memory of her version of events, sounding as if watching her friend being drowned was almost as terrible experience as being the one held under the water. She tried to assure her companion that she wasn’t as close to death as Bill had thought that she was, continuing her basic overview of Time Lord physiology, though she knew that that was a bit of an exaggeration of the truth. Regeneration had been closer than she dared to think, but she wasn’t going to tell Bill that.

“I’m just glad you’re ok,” said Bill, now sounding more confident that she had a minute ago. “Stay away from any lakes in the future, I don’t want a repeat of what happened.” 

The Doctor was happy to see Bill’s wry humour return and let off a little laugh.

“Neither do I.”

As as all was quiet, the Tardis quietly and contentedly humming in the background, it was probably about time to fix her lungs, even if she was dreading being drugged unconscious for several hours. 

She drew the computer screen towards her to give the Tardis sensor readings a check, just to make sure that she wasn’t going to be needed in the next few hours or so, though as the Tardis was unconcerned she didn’t expect the readings to show anything untoward. Neither she or Bill noticed that she was using both hands to manipulate the screen, leaving the forgotten oxygen mask at her side. 

She explained her plan to Bill and moved the computer screen back to it customary place against the wall, but made sure that the screen was angled so that Bill could see it - she knew that humans were reassured by screens and readings.

The first step in said plan was completed quickly as Bill, directed by the Doctor, sought the container of medicine amongst the many scattering the shelves and cupboards of the medbay. She brought the yellow striped container back to the Doctor, who checked it was the right one before giving it back to her companion to enter into the oxygen equipment.

“It’ll knock me out fairly quickly once it’s in,” said the Doctor. “So if there is anything you need to do or ask beforehand, now is the time.”

Bill wracked her brain for anything, reminding herself that the Time Lord had said that if anything bad happened whilst she was unconscious the Tardis could wake her up. Nothing came to mind.

“There should be a red lever you can pull back to reveal a chamber.” Bill took a quick half step backwards and looked down at what she could see of the oxygen equipment under the bed. There was a small flash of red that was mostly out of sight from where she was standing. “It should be near the blue valve you turned earlier. Put the canister in and then push the lever back into position. There should be a click as it engages. Then it’s night night for me.” The Doctor took a wheezy breath and made sure she had eye contact with her companion.

“Bill,” her voice had suddenly swapped from her usual ‘cheerfully informative’ to serious. “Make sure you get some rest. Don’t spend all night here, no benefit can be gained watching me sleep.” That seemed to also be a human thing, staying near someone who is unconscious when it was no help, often to the detriment of themselves. “Check I haven’t knocked the oxygen mask off as I pass out then leave me. Watching a sleeping Time Lord can’t be the most thrilling of entertainment, go do whatever you humans do for fun for a while. After today I think you deserve it.” The cough that had been building for the last few minutes erupted from her throat, jarring her tired ribs and her aching head. A simple breath was hard to snatch from between the harsh coughs and she only noticed that she had listed to the side when Bill pushed her back upright again, handing her the abandoned oxygen mask at the same time. The oxygen helped soothe the burning in her lungs and her cough so after a few careful breaths she was able to start getting her breathing back under control.

Breathing normally again after a few minutes she twisted herself so that instead of sitting with her legs dangling off the side of the bed she was now half lying along it, lowering the oxygen mask from her face and adjusting the straps. She saw Bill crouch down to the side of the bed out of the corner of her eye and lent over the side to make sure that her companion looked like she knew what she was doing. She watched the red lever being pulled back and the canister inserted and then sat back up, giving the strap on the mask one last tug.

“Doctor?” Bill asked, wanting instruction to continue.

“Go for it,” the Doctor replied, starting to don the mask as she heard the machinery below her clunk, click and hiss. She settled it comfortably over her face and swiped away an annoying clump of hair disturbed by the mask strap as Bill stood.

“It’ll take a few seconds,” she told the human, waiting for the strange heavy feeling of the drugs to come.

It came only a moment later, hitting her like a heavy, euphoric wave. Her vision went blurry, hazy then started to fade and she was distantly aware of Bill holding her by the shoulders. After that she remembered no more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come and be excited at the new Doctor Who episodes at my tumblr here - evelynthursday.tumblr.com - or keep updated with my writing here - evieswritingjournal.tumblr.com.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is finally finished!! And 3 days before the 13th Doctor's first episode!

The Doctor gradually awoke. In her half asleep state she could feel something strange pressed against her face and lifted a heavy hand to feel what it was. It was slightly warm and plasticy under her fumbling fingers. As she became more aware she opened her eyes, vision coalescing into the familiar surroundings of the Tardis medbay. How had she got here, lying in the medbay with what turned out to be an oxygen mask on her face? She forced her groggy mind to remember.

_That planet with the bipedal lizards. The feeling of being held underwater. Waking up and struggling to breath, Bill at her side._ She shivered at the memory, now wide awake.

She sat up on the bed and removed the oxygen mask, relieved to see that her companion was nowhere in sight. Hopefully that meant that Bill had spent the night asleep in her own bed, though she did notice that the other bed in the room had been sat upon.

She pulled in a deep experimental breath. Nothing. Not a twinge, not a cough. All back to normal. Perfect!

She lept off the bed, blinking away the last dregs of drugged sleep and and reached out to put the mask away but was hampered by her hand disappearing inside a black sleeve. She frowned, confused. Then she remembered, she was wearing her last regeneration’s hoodie, that was why it was so big the sleeves swamped her arms. She shoved the misbehaving sleeve back up past her elbow and continued tidying up, removing the now empty medicine canister from the oxygen equipment and leaving it on the side for the Tardis to dispose of; wherever she disposed of things, the Doctor had never worked that out.

The Tardis was humming contentedly in the background and her corridors were dim and quiet as she walked down them to the console room. Obviously nothing had happened whilst she was asleep.

The lights were dark in the console room when she entered, denoting it was sometime in the Tardis designated night - the time vortex was by nature timeless. She crossed to the controls, laying a hand on the time rotor.

“Hello, Sexy. Have you been behaving yourself whilst I’ve been asleep?” The Tardis groaned and grumbled in response. “I know, but I’m feeling a lot better now. But do Bill and I a favour, make sure our next destination is a little less hostile.” Another groan and the dim lights flickered. “Thanks, Old Girl.”

The Doctor took a quick glance at the sensor readings, just to make sure everything was quiet - sometimes her and the Tardis’s definition of ‘quiet’ differed - then left, making her way back down darkened corridors to her room.

Her room was a comforting dimness when she entered, the Tardis projecting an aura of soothing calm and projecting her favourite galaxies on the walls and ceiling. The Tardis must have been worried this time, usually she was never this sympathetic this long after a regeneration.

The bathroom in contrast was a bright white. She blinked a few times as she entered, the brightness painful on the eyes for a few moments. She crossed the room to stand by the sink, pulling off the too big hoodie as she did so, throwing it back into her bedroom in the vague direction of the bed.

She looked in the mirror. The bruise on her cheek was now a faded brown and pulling down the collar of her shirt she could see that the ones on her neck were now a barely visible yellow. The twin bruises on her chest where Bill had compressed her hearts felt almost healed too. Thank goodness for her Time Lord healing, how do humans cope with reminders of their trauma lingering on their skin for days? Or weeks!?

Turning away from the reminders of her own trauma in the mirror she started to undress. She could still smell the lake water on herself and hopefully the hot water of the shower would wash away the feeling of the cold grasping fingers of the water of the lake from her skin.

The water was warm as soon as she turned it on, a perk of Tardis living that her human companions often commented on, steam soon fogging the mirror and creating curls across the ceiling.

With any luck the water would wash away the terror still lurking at the back of her mind.

* * *

 

One long, hot shower later the Doctor found herself wandering the Tardis corridors again, listening for the sound of her companion now that the lights had risen in the Tardis designated morning. It still must have been early as she could hear nothing and Bill was not in the kitchen when she gravitated there.

Suddenly hungry, perhaps she should have eaten last night, she searched the cupboards for food. Finding bread, chocolate digestives, a jar of pickled mixed fruit that she had been given by one planet or another and a rather old jar of Marmite (did that stuff ever go off?) and settled down at the table to consume her breakfast.

Bill wandered in sometime later, just as she was fishing around the jar of fruit with a fork, determined to spear that last piece of apricot-tasting deliciousness. Bill, used to the Doctor’s odd eating habits, just smiled to see her looking healthy.

“You’re up and about. Feeling better?”

The Doctor looked up a little guilty, she had been told many times in many different regenerations by many companions not to eat straight out of comunal containers.

“Loads. I’m now as fit as a fiddle. I’m ready to go explore the universe again whenever you are.” The Doctor’s stomach gave an audible growl. “After I’ve finished breakfast,” she added sheepishly, one hand reaching for the jar of fruits that she had put down when Bill had started talking. “I forgot how hungry I get after a long sleep like that.”

The plate in front of her was scattered with toast and biscuit crumbs, a pile of chocolate digestives sitting next to a slightly dusty jar of Marmite with a knife sticking out of it, sticky brown tracks trailing from it across the tabletop. A half eaten biscuit was balanced on the edge of her plate. It looked like the Doctor was smearing the marmite onto the chocolate digestives before eating them. Time Lords were weird.

Crossing to the fridge Bill retrieved the butter and snagged the bread on her way to the alien equivalent of a toaster that she wasn’t entirely convinced that the Doctor hadn’t cobbled together from bits of space junk. But it toasted her bread to just how she liked it so she used it, even if she was a little scared that it would blow up in her face.

She turned and leant against the edge of the countertop as the contraption whirred around the bread, watching as the Doctor resumed demolishing the pile of digestives, creating more tracks of Marmite across the table top as she did so.

The Doctor was quickly distracted by the fruit again, fork rattling against the glass (or alien glass equivalent). Bill picked up the now abandoned jar of Marmite and carefully examined the inside. Deciding it was unadulterated (hopefully the Doctor hadn’t been eating straight out of this jar) and safe to eat she carried it over to where her toast had just popped up.

Once she had finished preparing her breakfast she settled at the table opposite the Doctor (or rather, her chair), who had emptied the jar of fruit and was now almost climbing into a cupboard, searching for something. She settled back on her chair as Bill started crunching through the tangy tasting toast, triumphantly clutching a bottle of strange blue liquid.

“Fancy any of this Bill?”

“What is it? It looks like someone's blended a Smurf!”

“It’s nessos juice from Versallen. Trust me, it’s delicious, and perfectly safe for humans.”

“When you say that it’s not reassuring, you know that, right? But sure, I’ll try it.”

The liquid was no less strange when it sat on the table top in glasses. Bill was a little hesitant at first, watching the Doctor down her glass in one go before refilling it, but after a sip discovered that it really was delicious, despite it’s funny colour.

A comfortable silence settled over the pair as they finished consuming their breakfast.

“So,” said the Doctor as she brushed crumbs off her fingers and screwed the lid back onto the jar or Marmite. “Any ideas for today’s destination? Or shall we let the Tardis decide?”

“If it is all the same to you can we go somewhere quieter today? I don’t think I could stand up to too much excitement after yesterday.”

“I know how you feel. I don’t want to have another day like yesterday for a few more lifetimes.”

The Doctor patted her companion’s hand in understanding but quickly retracted it when she felt stickiness at the contact. She looked at her fingers as if they had betrayed her before sticking them in her mouth to suck the lingering Marmite off. Bill smiled at her behaviour and discreetly wiped the Marmite left on her hand on her trouser leg.

“Are you okay after yesterday?” She asked. “And I don’t just mean physically.”

“Yes, of course I am,” the Doctor replied, removing her digits so she could speak.

“Are sure you are alright?” Bill was not so sure of the truthfulness of the Doctor’s answer. “ You did nearly die yesterday. And in a fairly traumatic way too.”

“I’m fine, Bill. I’m the ‘King of Okay’...nope, still a rubbish title. Anyway, Time Lords are made of tough stuff, trust me. And what about you? You were there too.”

“I’ll probably have nightmares about it for weeks, but I’ll be alright. Really. I just need some time to process it.”

“Do you need to see one of those brain shrinking people you humans go to? And why would your brain need shrinking, are they aliens or something? I really should check and-”

“Doctor,” Bill cut her off with a laugh. “We call them ‘shrinks’ and whilst I don’t know why, I can assure you they are perfectly human. And no I don’t need one at the moment but thanks for asking. Back to your question about destination- I could do with a good party to get my mind off things. No bad guys, no one trying to kill us. Just a party.”

“I know exactly the place. It has the best solstice celebrations this side of the galaxy. Get your glad rags on Bill, we are going to have fun today!”

They parted at the kitchen door, the Doctor to the console room and Bill to her bedroom.

It only took a few minutes to change from her scruffy sleep clothes to something that she hoped was appropriate for a celebration and to finish off her morning routine. She felt the floor under her feet vibrate as the Tardis landed just as she retrieved a certain something from crumpled pile of yesterday’s clothes. One last look in the mirror to check her hair and then she headed down the corridor to the console room.

She found the Doctor leaning against the console, who jumped up with a grin when she spotted her companion.

“Ready to go?”

“Yep. Just wait a sec.”

Bill crossed over to her and offered her what she was carrying in her hand.

“This belongs to you,” she said, handing over the sonic screwdriver. “The lizard guy had left it in his pile of things. I forgot to give it back to you last night.”

“My sonic!” The Doctor was delighted. “I thought I’d lost it. Thank you Bill.”

Screwdriver safely back in her inner coat pocket, the Doctor bounded over to the Tardis doors and flung them open, looking back to see Bill walk more sedately over to join her.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, peering out of the doorway, the Doctor’s hand finding her companion’s.

“Come on Bill, let's start our next adventure.”

End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Come and say hi on my Tumblr. I have fic sneak peeks.](https://evieswritingjournal.tumblr.com/)


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